In response to seobrien's comment:

Meanwhile, negotiations on funding of Edmonton's new downtown arena have bogged down, with the price going up, and the City not willing to give Katz any more money. 

The design is a BMW, but they may only have enough dollars for a Buick.

Yeah, the Sounders actually outdraw a number of Premiership teams like Queens Park Rangers and Fulham, which is pretty stunning.

If and when the league does relocate a team, the market and rink will only be two factors. Personally having gone to a couple of Thunderbirds games, I think the market is there in Seattle. Reading the comment sections of some of the articles on this new rink deal, there are a bunch of fans saying things like "I can't wait to cheer on the Metropolitans" and "Gonna be great to scream at the Canucks until they cry."

Personally I think the market and rinks will be a wash between Seattle and Quebec, so that means it will come down to ownership.
The likely owners at this point are Pierre Karl Peladeau who runs Quebecor, and Don Levin who runs the Chicago Wolves, two very different types of owners - one has ridiculously deep pockets but is not well liked, the other is not as filthy rich but is a proven hockey guy who knows how to run a successful franchise (similar to Mark Chipman). Two very different ownership choices for the league, it would be interesting to see which they would prefer.

And Kel, the largest city in ND is only 100,000 people - they just can't do it. As such the Jets have been heavily marketing to ND, trying to tap that market. I know some profs at UND who split season tickets to Winnipeg.

The Mariners are drawing 22,000 a game not spectacular but not far from a division leader Baltimore at 25,000. Now when the Mariners had ownership that spent money like in the early 2000s they were drawing 43,000 per. The Sonics left becuase of bad ownership not becuase of the fans. Seahawks drew 66,413 a game 2011 that's 99% capacity. If Paul Allen builds it they will come. The state of Washington have sports fans no doubt.

Even if Seattles hockey/basketball facility is finished sooner than Quebecs I would think Bettman might wait if Quebec is closer. Now if Bettman sees someone like Paul Allen's phone # comes into his cell phone after Seattle's areana is finished all bets are off.

Now that would be interesting - Levin and Allen together. Talk about a powerhouse ownership group.

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